Part 2: Characteristics of Trauma

Van der Kolk describes the characteristics of psychological trauma as damage from uncontrollable, terrifying, and overwhelming life events. 

Uncontrollable means that it is outside of one’s power even to confront.  The prevailing feeling is one of helplessness, a hallmark of anxiety.

Terrifying means that there is nowhere to run, no escape. Therefore, when a memory of the experience is triggered, the terror returns in a re-traumatizing flashback occurs, a re-experiencing of the physiological and psychological state of the original trauma. 

Overwhelming means that it sweeps over one’s ego and emotional defenses like a tsunami, irresistible; undermining the very foundational experience of feeling safe. 

Those dealing with trauma victims are frequently pressured into a simplistic analysis in trying to triage these individuals.  This happens due to the constraints of limited financial and emotional support both for victims and for those working on the front lines. This is true for working with individuals are trapped in their family enclave. It is also true in large scale social enclaves, such the victims of past trauma found en masse in the Skid row areas of every major city.   They include the disenfranchised sleeping on the streets as well as alcoholics, drug addicts and prostitutes selling their bodies to maintain their drug dependency. 

Substance abuse, moral degeneration and social breakdown of cpmmunities of marginalized people, and chronic mental disorder is usually blamed for the groups of street people in the cities.  This is a simplistic and convenient explanation which is neither helpful nor all that accurate.  Paying even a little attention to the individuals in these groups, one sees that many share a common background: They have been traumatized from early childhood. What they need is treatment for their trauma. Without that, attempts made to cure their depression, or treat their violence, alcohol and drug addiction issues, will likely fail.